Educational Existentialism - IOSR Journals

1 IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (JHSS) ISSN: 2279-0837, ISBN: 2279-0845. Volume 2, Issue 2 (Sep-Oct. 2012), PP 22-27 22 | Page Educational Existentialism Dr. Francis E. Ekanem Faculty Of Arts, Department Of Philosophy ,University Of Uyo, Nigeria. Abstract: The transmission of worthwhile knowledge for the total man seems to be the basis upon which most Educational curriculum of schools is fashioned. In this twentieth century, more emphasis seems to be placed on technical, vocational and scientific content in our Educational pursuit. This it appears has been done to the detriment of humanistic education that captures the existential situation that bedevils man, some of which leads to suicide, terrorism, pornography, robbery, prostitution, drugs and so on as a consequence.

2 This paper is a philosophical attempt to re-kindle our preference in what we consider worthwhile to transmit to the pupils with the aim of drawing our attention to the lived experience of man s vicissitudes. It tries to inquire whether education can make some difference in this regard in the area of handing over the tools to the pupils in order for them to be able to probe into the underlying nature of reality for an authentic living from a dialogical perspective. I. Introduction Education has gained an unprecedented acceptability and status that is unparalleled. Little wonder, almost everyone wants to gain some level of education. Opinions however differ on who an educated man is. And this informs the dichotomy between formal education on the one hand and informal education on the other hand.

3 Formal education is understood as a state sanctioned institutionalized education. Harris (1979:1) puts it in proper perspective thus: The key features of education then are that it is formal and institutionalized that it is provided or sanctioned by the state and institutionalized; and that it is deliberately concerned to provide its charges with a broad understanding of the world (1). On the other hand, informal education has been the traditional way by which the human race has educated its young (Park, 1974:230). It is a type of education that is the opposite of formal education hence knowledge here is gotten from experience and in other strange ways and manner other than in a state sanctioned institution. From cr che, kindergarten through primary, secondary and tertiary education, we can sense a great imbalance in the curriculum content of schools because of wrong preference and values attached to materialism.

4 People just want to get a certificate so that they can live a good life. But whether a degree or a diploma guarantees a good life is a subject for another day. But suffice it to say that the structure of most education curricula gives undue emphasis on acquiring skills that can make one earned a living without balancing the equation with other salient important area of studies that harps on man, his finitude, his fears, his existence, his facticity and so on. Perhaps it is such kind of concern that made Ivan Illich (1972) to call for a de-schooling of society. This is how he retorts: The de-schooling of society implies a recognition of the two faced nature of learning. An insistence on skill drill alone could be a disaster; equal emphasis must be placed on other kinds of learning (24).

5 It is not a secret that several countries of the world today are faced with serious economic recession. There are a whole lot of job cuts without so much a hope to create new ones. This has led to a wide spread unemployment leading to all kinds of depression, suicide, drugs, robbery and so on. Now by way of analysis one would ask: what is the connection between a person losing a job and going into depression? What is the connection between a person losing valuable properties worth millions and billons of dollar and then committing suicide? Why would one wants to take his/her life because of material loses or other considerations? These issues are as serious as obtaining a degree without proper emphasis on man and his existential realities.

6 Unfortunately it does appear that when it comes to matters of the mind , people hardly pay much attention perhaps because it is seen as abstract without much value attached to it. But we shall keep ignoring the Educational Existentialism 23 | Page kind of education that focuses on the ontology of man to our peril because, we shall soon realize that there is a whole lot of interconnectedness between mind and matter and it is the proper blend and harmony of the two that will give our pupils the right foundation to face whatever challenges that is peculiar to man and common in our world. It is for these reasons that this paper will x-ray education as formal and state sanctioned via its curricula in order to be able to identify what kind of preference we give to our curricula content and teaching pedagogy and whether it captures the lived experience of man and his existential situation and if it also gives him a mind of his own to probe into reality.

7 Let us now turn to the concept of education for further insight. II. Understanding The Concept Of Education Education as conceived by Peters (1970) is a concept which is not very close to the ground. By this he means that it is not a concept like red which picks out a simple quality; like horse which picks out an object; or like running or smiling which picks out observable occurrences (1). However, we must attempt to unearth the concept of education. To begin, we shall glean from the perspectives of some key authorities in education. Peters gives us some criteria for understanding the concept of education. He talked about the normative aspect of education which implies a reform. Here it is held that something worthwhile should be achieved and there must be evidence that it is. Hence it would be a logical contradiction to say that a man had been educated but he had in no way changed for the better (Peters 1966:25).

8 This is like making education a task-achievement process which entails a model education of some sort. We also have the cognitive aspect of education which goes beyond skill acquisition. However, we do not call a person educated who has simply mastered a skill even though the skill may be highly prized such as pottery. For a man to be educated it is insufficient that he should possess a mere know how or knack. He must have also some body of knowledge and some kind of a conceptual scheme to raise this above the level of a collection of disjointed facts (Peters 1966:30). We would not call a man who was merely well informed an educated man. He must also have some understanding of the reason why of things. The Spartans, for instance, were militarily and morally trained. They knew how to fight and they knew what was right and wrong; they were possessed of certain stock of folklore.

9 But we would not say that they had received a military or moral education; for they had never been encouraged to probe into the principles underlying their code. It is also possible for a man to know a lot of history in the sense that he can give correct answers to question in the class-room and examinations; yet this might never affect the way he looks at the buildings and institutions around him. We might describe such a man as knowledgeable but we would not describe him as educated , for education implies that a man s outlook is transformed by what he knows. Ivan Illich (1972) captures this point clearly when he states that: Work, leisure, politics, city living and even family life depend on schools for the habits and knowledge they presuppose, instead of becoming themselves the means of education (11).

10 There must be a cognitive perspective to education and a clear distinction between education and training . A man with a trained mind is one who can tackle particular problems that are put to him in a rigorous and competent manner. An educated mind suggests much more awareness of the different facets and dimensions of such problems (Peters 1966:32). Education it has been argued, involves the intentional transmission of what is worthwhile. For something to count as an Educational process, then, a minimum of comprehension must be involved. This is quite compatible with formal instruction and commands with some level of voluntariness on the part of the ones being educated. For Paulo Freire, education must be dialogical and problem-posing. It is otherwise known as liberating education.